Bringing up a post I did a few months ago for this weeks Sepia Saturday. Since this weeks theme is a photo of a young girl, I thought Id let you all meet Young Stella with her beautiful long hair. I posted this on my blog and later got a response of someone who found my blog while googling stella and they also had a different photo of her.

From all research and census records with what I could come up with I didnt see Stella ever married or with children. She was living with her parents in her late 40s. Such a pretty girl but would have been considered a Spinster eh?

Cabinet Card Photo of a young girl. Says in pencil on back of photo says “Stella Ford”

Census records 1920 show her living in Pomona, Ca, Ward 4, La County. 44-47 yrs old and living with her parents.

Please follow and read this link with further info on this family

“In 1885 Mr. Ford came to Pomona and bought twenty acres south of the town, which he planted to deciduous fruits and grapes; but in time he sold the ranch and bought an orange grove of fifteen acres, at the corner of East Holt Street and Central Avenue, and this property he still owns. There he grows both Navel and Valencia oranges, and such has been his good luck as the result of experience and application to the study of the problems involved, that the ten acres has at times produced 8,000 boxes. Through his output, in fact, Mr. Ford has come to be known as one of the successful orange growers of today.

At Odell, Ill., on December 4, 1871, Mr. Ford was married to Mary L. Warner, by whom he has had three children. Besides a daughter, Stella M., there is a son, Frank W., who is manager of the Claremont Citrus Association, and another son, Harry G., who is in charge of his father’s extensive ranch.”

Hi there! I found this picture just this past Friday, and have since realized it is technically a ‘carte de visite’ due to its smaller size. She is adorable, with such wonderful hair! I have enjoyed reading your site, what a wonderful passion you have🙂

Please do add the second picture to your blog post. There is no need for a reference however, you did all the foot work in establishing who Stella was! I hadn’t expected to find anything when I entered her name into google but was pleasantly suprised to see she had also been found in Lancaster as well as the small shop in Rosamond I check from time to time. It makes me wonder if her family moved to this area at some point, even a generation or two down the line, and whether more related articles may remain yet undiscovered in the various shops around town…

I have also come to think that these images should be reunited! I would be happy to provide you with the CDV I have as a gift if you were interested. I picked it up for a song so it would be no great loss to me🙂 If you like, contact me through eBay to work out details. My user name there is brocmitchell. Have a great day!

What a lovely story and how generous of ‘Broc’ to offer to reunite the two pictures. She was certainly a lovely looking child, and like the one in my post, she seems to have remained unmarried. It’s so sad. The name Stella, means ‘star’ and suits her well.

A very interesting travelogue through her genealogy and a way to remember another once beautiful little girl through the ages. Makes me wonder about her later years, as a spinster, did she have lots of memories that were not shared, did she thrive on the poraries of Kansas or was it a hard life. Oh the questions we could ask….interesting that you received another photo from a google contact too.